If the season had ended after last night’s games, the Magic would have drawn a first-round playoff matchup against the Indiana Pacers.

And of the seven other teams likely to make the East playoffs, the Magic probably match up best against the Pacers.

The Pacers would not be an easy opponent. Indiana has improved across the board, highlighted by the continued development of 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert and the emergence of shooting guard Paul George.

The Philadelphia 76ers are the only other likely East playoff team that has a losing record this season to the Magic, and the Sixers can even the series at 2-2 with a win Monday in Orlando.

Ideally for the Magic, they would have homecourt advantage and a first-round matchup against the Pacers.

But given a choice between one or the other, I think they would prefer to face Indiana instead of having homecourt advantage and a first-round matchup against, say, the Boston Celtics or the Atlanta Hawks.

Stan Van Gundy and many of his players claim that their team rejuvenated its spirit in recent days. They cannot pinpoint how it happened, exactly. They only say that something changed just before or during their gritty win Saturday night in Philadelphia.

This time, something strange and wonderful happened. The skies cleared, the rain stopped and the starving blind man gorged himself on a much-needed victory and finally regained his sight ¿ the vision of making the playoffs.